Cycle to the Sea
2024
Funded by Creative Ireland with the Department of the Environment,
Climate and Communications | Creative Climate Action Fund
“Cycle to the Sea” is a unique community engagement project focusing on co-creating a series of sculptural artworks along an existing rural road from the village of Cloyne to the sea in East Cork in order to encourage more cycling and less driving. These sculptures serve as artistic expressions co-designed by the community as well as distance markers and navigational aids. This innovative is a collaboration with local sculpture artist Aoife Banville and aims to transform the way residents of Cloyne in East Cork think about travel, art, and the environment.
We held a series of open-call community workshops to establish the route and co-design the art pieces and road markers. The route chosen goes from the Round Tower in Cloyne to Ballynamona Beach. Unpredictable weather led to a couple of wet workshops, both for the nature walk and first group cycle of the route. Despite the rain, groups of community members still showed up to learn and get involved with Cycle to the Sea.
Once the artwork themes were determined by the community, our team got to work on logistics of placement, materials and scale. The prototyping process for the sculptures then began. It was decided to cut artworks out of metal using a local laser-cutting company called ROS Precision. Once the discs were cut out, they were brought to Cronin Trailers where they were welded onto poles, given brackets for stability, and inserted into old tractor tyres with a sleeve welded inside. This mechanism makes the sculptures portable and easy to install.
9 sculptures were placed alongside the Cycle to the Sea route at three locations, (1) at the junction where Ballyduff and Kilmacahill meet, (2) just after the cross on Ballingarrane, and (3) just before Ballynamona Beach. The three themes used in the sculptures are inspired by nature and the locality were native wildlife (a hedgehog, the hare, and a wren), foliage (blackberries, a plantain grass plant and the common foxglove), and seaweeds (oarweed, sea moss, bladderwrack).
Bi-weekly cycles
After the sculptures were placed along the route, bi-weekly guided cycles were held (weather dependent). These cycles were to showcase the sculptures, familiarise more community members with the project and its mission, gather feedback about future signage, and get cyclists to use the route.
Wayfinding Installation at Ballynamona Beach
The paper signs made by families who joined our Wayfinding workshop with SECAD were printed on metal and turned into a colourful ‘wayfinding’ installation and placed at Ballynamona Beach.
Placement of sculptures and colourful pointer signs along the route
On November 10th, we gathered project participants and other community members for a cycle along the route, stopping for a celebration with drinks, food, and activities half-way to Ballynamona Beach in Strand Road Furniture. Cork Bike Hire offered free bike hire for anyone interested in cycling but didn’t own a bike. The weather was finally on our side and we had a fabulous sunny autumnal celebration! The majority of cyclists went on to Ballynamona Beach and back to see the sculptures and get familiar with the route.
Many participants said they want to get back into cycling based on the Cycle to the Sea initiative!
